This invention relates generally to the construction of compressed gas guns and more particularly to the guns designed to propel a liquid containing frangible projectile, otherwise known as a “paintball.” As used herein, the term “compressed gas” refers to any mean known in the art for providing a fluid for firing a projectile from a compressed gas gun, such as a CO2 tank, a nitrous tank, or any other means supplying gas under pressure. Older existing compressed gas guns generally use a mechanical sear interface to link the trigger mechanism to the hammer or firing pin mechanism. In these guns, a trigger pull depresses the sear mechanism which allows the hammer, under spring or pneumatic pressure, to be driven forward and actuate a valve that releases compressed gas through a port in the bolt, which propels a projectile from the barrel.
This design, however, has many problems, including increased maintenance, damage after repeated cycles, and a higher amount of force is required to drive the hammer mechanism backwards to be seated on the sear. Also, because the sear and resulting hammer must be made of extremely hard materials, the gun is heavy. Such weight is a disadvantage in paintball, where a player's agility works to his advantage.
To overcome the problems of a mechanical sear, people developed other solutions. One solution uses a pneumatic cylinder, which uses spring or pneumatic pressure on alternating sides of a piston to first hold a hammer in the rearward position and then drive it forward to actuate a valve holding the compressed gas that is used to fire the projectile. Although the use of a pneumatic cylinder has its advantages, it requires the use of a stacked bore, where the pneumatic cylinder in the lower bore and is linked to the bolt in the upper bore through a mechanical linkage. It also requires increased gas use, as an independent pneumatic circuit must be used to move the piston backwards and forwards. A further disadvantage is that adjusting this pneumatic circuit can be difficult, because the same pressure of gas is used on both sides of the piston and there is no compensation for adjusting the amount of recock gas, used to drive it backwards, and the amount of velocity gas, which is the amount of force used to drive it forward and strike the valve. This results in erratic velocities, inconsistencies, and shoot-down. In addition, this technology often results in slower cycling times, as three independent operations must take place. First, the piston must be cocked. Second, the piston must be driven forward. Third, a valve is opened to allow compressed gas to enter a port in the bolt and fire a projectile. Clearly, the above design leaves room for improvement.
Single-bore designs have also been developed which place the cylinder and piston assembly in the top bore, usually behind the bolt. This reduces the height of the compressed gas gun, but still requires that a separate circuit of gas be used to drive the piston in alternating directions, which then actuates a valve to release compressed gas, which drives the bolt forward to launch a paintball. These are generally known as spool valve designs. See, for instance, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,644,295, 5,613,483 and 5,494,024.
Existing spool valve designs have drawbacks as well. Coordinating the movements of the two separate pistons to work in conjunction with one another requires very precise gas pressures, port orifices, and timing in order to make the gun fire a projectile. In the rugged conditions of compressed gas gun use, these precise parameters are often not possible. In addition, adjusting the velocity of a compressed gas gun becomes very difficult, because varying the gas pressure that launches a paintball in turn varies the pressure in the pneumatic cylinder, which causes erratic cycling.
What is needed is a compressed gas gun design that eliminates the need for a separate cylinder and piston assembly and uses a pneumatic sear instead of a pneumatic double-acting cylinder to hold the firing mechanism in place prior to firing a projectile. This allows the gun to be very lightweight and compact, and simplifies adjusting the recock gas used to cock the bolt and the gas used to fire the projectile.